Will is a concept we all know of, and hopefully have some sort of grasp on.  Will is your life, and what you want to do with it. It’s your destiny and your fate, but with you as the shaping focus. And as you grow, so does your Will. It changes as you do, what your Will was when you are young may not be what it will be when you are older. Everyone has Will, every single Shard, we all have it. Beloved or not, you possess Will. And your Will is what you make of it. Following your dreams, pushing yourself to your limits, these are ways to shape your Will. An example, if you would. Take a young one, freshly into this world, brimming with opportunities. The adolescent meets a wise elder in their travels, and decides to someday be that wise, and that knowledgeable. That is their Will, yes? But what if, years down the line, they are called to defend their home, and discover the path of the warrior suits their skills better. Maybe they weren’t too good at being wise, or maybe they struggled along the path they had chosen. Will changes with us as we grow, sometimes our paths deviate from one extreme to the other, and sometimes the changes are so subtle that we don’t realize our Will has changed until we find ourselves on a new path. Your Will might not change at all, I’ve seen that happen. Your Will is yours, and yours alone. So long as you follow it, and respect yourself and others, you cannot steer yourself wrong. 

While there are books and scrolls to what each path means, in the wide and general sense, there exist only a few that speak of personal accounts. The major paths, as they stand now, are Ivory, Scarlet and Voidcopper. Some think  that these are separate entities, detached from the others. I used to believe that, that one could not be both Ivory and Scarlet. But I’ve seen differently now, all of the paths exist in a careful balance with the others. Even those paths melded into the existing three, each Beloved has a part of each path within themselves. For the sake of being thorough, I shall define the paths as they seem at first glance. Scarlet seems simple at first glance, it’s passion. Unbridled and wild, passion in all that you do. Seems simple enough, but it isn’t. The path of Scarlet means much more than a cursory glance will tell you. Ivory is much the same, the simple descriptor of faith and balance does little to sum up the full ideals of the path. The Ivory is one of patience, peace and balance, or so I had assumed. These two paths are like two sides of a coin to the casual observer. While this is not the case, this is something I will touch upon later. And lastly, Voidcopper. Many think Voidcopper is just a mix of Ivory and Scarlet, but as I have learned, they are each different and yet the same. Voidcopper is a path of devotion and determination, as I understand it now. 

 And yet, redefining these paths are something that cannot be helped. There is no textbook answer for any of these, it’s a matter of what you are and how you feel. Personal journeys are common amongst the Beloved. This is my personal journey, my interpretations of the paths and meanings and everything I’ve encountered and made my own. This is, by no means, a place to find answers. My answers will not be yours. But as you go along, you collect the answers of others, and it helps you form your own.  

I’m going to give a bit of context for my impressions of the paths, and how I saw the Beloved prior to the latest metamorphosis I went through. I was trouble when I was younger, genuine trouble. I was rash, violent and angry. The Beloved gave me the chance to change, but I learned to internalize it more. Prior to being cast out from the Beloved, I was arrogant and mean as well. With the Beloved, and the help of several people, I came to learn more about the world and my presumed place in it. I was still violent, but passionate. I found goals to drive myself with, I found my place amongst the Pyromancers and Gaudiguch. But, as life has a habit of doing, these things changed drastically, several times. I thought myself Scarlet, of passion and fury. Drenched in blood and gore, that is how I had hoped to find my glory. Fortunately, a deep slumber changed my perspective quite a bit. That, and a few helpful Beloved.

How I viewed myself, and Scarlet, and where I fit in there, was faulty at best. I see now that I was mostly wrong. I thought the paths so divergent and separate that one could not be the other, and vice versa. Now, the Most Beloved had given me the title of Blade in Ivory. An ivory blade seemed a bit impractical, but my Will was to be Theirs, and Their hand in combat. So I simply took it at face value, without looking deeper towards the meaning. I believe there has always been a guiding and directing hand pushing me towards Ivory, I was just too blind to see it. Of course, I see those signs now. I can watch my journey through the years, and tell you each influential moment and how I have ended up where I am now. And I am happy here. But I can only assume that is the fate of those with a troubling journey, one cannot see the significance of events until they have passed. It’s a bit silly how blind I really was, though. 

I guess it was obvious to everyone around me where I really belonged, but I was so dead set on being Scarlet, on being fury, pain and strength. I thought I had to be Scarlet to be those things, that there was no way someone who wanted to fight and defend had a place in the Ivory. These days, I still rise to defend my home and my people, I still stand at the ready should the Most Beloved have need of my purpose as a Blade. I suppose that will never change, but I can be that and what I am now. I’ve found that Ivory is more than I ever expected. Fighting has a place in Ivory, as much as anything else does. The key to Ivory is knowing the balance around you. With Scarlet, charging off into the fray is what is expected, but in Ivory one needs to keep a level head. It’s like looking between a berserk fighter and a strategist. With Ivory, keeping things in balance is what makes it Ivory. Being aware of what’s around you, who is around you, and keeping things even, in your own way. 

 

I’ll address the Scarlet first, as it was where I began, and what started this whole journey. As I wrote earlier, my view of Scarlet was so wrong, it was almost impressive. Being a narrow-minded young one, I took things at face value. I was a very literal individual. While I had a few things right, most of what I thought was simply a foolish and narrow view. Scarlet is passion, it is pain and anger. But it is also love, hate and joy. It’s hard to define what Scarlet is in words, because it is a feeling. It is passion, and while that explanation seems enough, it’s not. Scarlet is a feeling, it’s a fire in your gut, it’s that voice in your head that tells you to keep going. It’s that instinct that tells you to run, or that urge to keep fighting despite the odds. How do you put that feeling into words? It’s impossible to really describe it, and what one is able to dredge up seems paltry to the true meaning of Scarlet. But it’s something we all have, to varying degrees. Those who follow Scarlet seek to foster that, to grow it into something they may use. Be it in battle, or in life. 

To choose Scarlet is to decide that your life will be passion, that is true. But it is also a commitment to your life, and fostering your own strengths. A Scarlet does not have to be a fighter. Perhaps a politician, or a scholar. Any path you set out on, Scarlet can be your guide. Others choose Scarlet because they lack that drive, and wish to foster it. 

I love the path that is Scarlet, and for the longest time, I felt that growing under it would bring me towards the path that I wanted. When I was very young, a Beloved asked me a question. Asked me what my Will was. The answer I gave, I thought, defined my path. I answered that I wished to be a battle-scholar, and to define what that role would be. I said that I wanted to be Theirs, a weapon to be used as They please. That rash answer of battle-scholar, and that youthful energy and passion, while foolish, has led me to this point. Am I a battle-scholar now? Who knows. But I am Theirs, a Blade of Ivory. I’m still trying to understand what that means, but I suspect this Blade has other uses besides war. 

 

Voidcopper is still hard for me to grasp, I’m afraid this section will be sparse. What I see as Voidcopper, I’m afraid others might not. Voidcopper is not the coin that binds Scarlet and Ivory, in my view. It is the apex. Scarlet and Ivory are the foundations upon which Voidcopper sits. It’s an evolution, and an amalgamation of Scarlet and Ivory. 

While those who walk with Voidcopper are both Scarlet and Ivory, they are more than that. There is no definition, no set personality that those of Voidcopper have. It is often called a more difficult path, simply because to truly advance and understand Voidcopper, you must understand the other paths. 

Change, transformation, growth, progress seem to be Voidcopper’s tenets. Voidcopper could be balance or faith. It depends on who you speak to. I guess I just don’t understand Voidcopper as well as I do the others, and it is something I need to work on.

 

And Ivory. Ivory is who I am now, who I was always meant to be. A very untraditional Ivory, but it is what I have been missing in my life. I could go on and on about Ivory, and I’m afraid I might. I always assumed Ivory was pure peace. Most of those of Ivory I have known were pacifists, quiet and demure individuals. One woman comes to mind, when I think of my view of Ivory, I think of her. I don’t think that will ever change, but I have come to understand, like the other paths, Ivory means different things to different people. I will never be a pacifist, it’s not in my nature. Quiet and demure are words that will never describe who I am. But I am Ivory, and I am where I belong. To me, my Ivory, is balance. To take, and give, and strive to keep things in balance. I fight, but I also foster life. I take, and then I give back. My actions cause my world to tip, to fall out of balance, and Ivory reminds me that I must keep things even. 

I’ve mentioned being the Blade in Ivory, and in the beginning I did not understand the Ivory part. The choices I have made, and the influence of others, has guided me here. My mentors, my teachers, elders and my fellow Beloved, I think they have guided me here. I am at peace with the Ivory, whereas the Scarlet fostered the roiling anger within me, the Ivory has calmed it.  I don’t understand, sometimes, what changed within me. But how I viewed the world was different. How I saw myself had changed. My goals before had been purely physical, purely for glory in battle. Now, while I battle is important, I just want to learn and to teach. To write until my quill wears out. Most of my life I sought glory in battle, courted danger and decimated areas. I laid waste to parts of forests, slaughtered those who opposed me. And I thought that was my purpose, to be a vessel of rage and violence. I thought that was my purpose, to exist like that. Always in turmoil, always full of hate. 

But that was a phase, a step on my journey to contentment. I led my life by unbridled passion, and now I lead it mindfully. I try to be aware of when I cause an imbalance, and I try to correct it. We all go through phases, it’s just part of life. Mine just seemed particularly harsh. And I am happier than I was before. Truly happy. I am pleased to go about my life, to be amongst friends and family, to teach and lead. Blades don’t always have to be for war, and an Ivory Blade is ill suited for battle. I’m still working out where I sit as Blade, and exactly what purpose an ivory blade serves. I’ll get there eventually, in the meantime, I just keep growing. There is little doubt, decades from now, I will come back to this book, and I will have grown and strengthened. A record of sorts, a record of where my mind sat.